Ocean, nature, critters, and recreation

April 2014

Apr 29, 2014

It has been more than a week since a giant blue whale washed ashore at Trout River, Newfoundland, and locals are worried that the bloated mammal will explode.

“The whale is blowing up. It looks as if it’s a big balloon, from a distance,” Emily Butler, Trout River’s town clerk, told Canada’s CBC News. "There is a possibility as well, with all the gases inside the whale, that it may possibly explode.”

The beached whale, believed to be one of nine blue whales that perished in thick ice three weeks ago west of Newfoundland, is mired on the sand near Trout River’s historic boardwalk, and its stench fills the air.

Still, the carcass is drawing tourists close, and the concern is that it will explode with people nearby. But as many marine mammal experts have learned over the years, moving a giant whale is an extremely difficult problem.

Butler said that Trout River has been trying to keep people at bay, and to find a government agency that will dispose of the carcass.

"We really don't have any resources, and we really don't have the expertise," she said. CTV News reports that both whales are among the nine that either drowned or were crushed by ice, and that Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans had hoped that currents would sweep their carcasses to sea.

Apr 25, 2014

A large great white shark said to have been photographed close to shore off San Diego this week was reported by local news stations.

The photo (at right), sent by a viewer, shows the dorsal and tail fin of what looks like an apex predator, and its close proximity to the Point Loma headland.

Ralph Collier of the Shark Research Committeee told 10News that, based on the photo, it was a great white shark measuring about 15 feet. Collier said the photo was authentic.

News 8 and 10News reported the sighting Wednesday, just weeks before the spring and summer beach seasons. Scary stuff!

However, it turns out that the photo is part of a hoax. The photographer, Will Phillips, confessed to 10News that he had doctored a photo of a dolphin to make it look like a shark (dolphin photo posted below).

The News10 story, basically a retraction to its Wednesday story that included the Collier interview, was posted Thursday Night. News8 has removed its story about the shark sighting from its website.

But the hoax was discovered before News10 talked to Phillips, by at least one other shark expert. Martin Graf, managing director of Shark Diver, a commercial shark-diving company that specializes in voyages to Mexico's Guadalupe Island, where great whites congregate from late summer through early winter.

Graf discovered the original photo on the Internet and posted it, along with the shark photo, on his Facebook page.

He wrote: “The picture on the right (the doctored image) appeared on CBS 8-San Diego's Facebook page, with the headline 'Photographer spotted this white eating a seal right off the tip of Point Loma.' The picture on the left (the dolphin photo) is the pre-photoshopped shark!”

In the News10 retraction story, Phillips explained that, as a joke, a friend had doctored the image of a dolphin photographed in March. The joke is not funny as far as some are concerned, because it could have created a shark scare.

“Why someone would do this is simply beyond rationality,” reads one of the Facebook comments. “Unfortunately, this picture is making the rounds. Please spread the word that this is a lie.”

As for Collier, he apologized on the Shark Research Committee website, saying the image “fooled a number of colleagues as well. Photo shop. Our authentication procedure did not work this time.”

In an email Collier was more defensive, stating that the doctored photo does show an actual white shark, but the shark photo was plastered on top of a dolphin photo.

“If you look at the photograph of the shark, from the dorsal fin to the caudal is a white shark,” Collier stated. “Using Photoshop [he] took a photograph of a white shark swimming at the surface, from its dorsal fin to tail and stuck it on top of the dolphin picture from the dolphins dorsal fin back…. So my ID and that of several colleagues is correct... it is a white shark. It just wasn't in the picture when taken.”

Meanwhile, with the summer season fast approaching it's worth noting that great white sharks do utilize San Diego coastal waters, mostly juveniles but some large adults.

They're part of the ecosystem but do represent a threat to swimmers and surfers. In fact, exactly four years ago (on April 25, 2010) a 66-year-old triathlete was killed by a great white while swimming off Solana Beach, about 20 miles north of Point Loma.

So doctoring photos to make dolphins look like great white sharks appears to be, at the very least, in poor taste.

Apr 24, 2014

Gray whale mothers and calves are passing Southern California on their way to Arctic home waters, and many of the cow-calf pairs are hugging the shoreline.

It’s tempting, understandably, for swimmers and surfers to try to get close to them. But they should know that altering the whales’ behavior in any way–merely causing one to veer from its course, for example–violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Earlier this week, passengers aboard the Dana Pride out of Dana Wharf Whale Watching were enjoying multiple whale sightings off Laguna Beach when three people swam out from shore.

Mansur’s text message to the office: “Amazing whales today. Seven so far. Three calves [and] four adults playing in Laguna… It was great until three people swam out and spooked them.”

Dana Wharf on Thursday posted the photo, by co-captain Frank Brennan, on its Facebook page. The caption reads: “Don’t swim too close to me!” - We know the whales are way cool, but please don’t swim up to them. For your safety and theirs.”

Mothers and calves are the last to leave Baja California nursing grounds and the last to make it back to the Bering and Chukchi seas.

Among the threats they face are transient killer whales, which prey on calves.

Transient killer whales do most of their whale-hunting off Monterey and points north. But a large pod was spotted off the Palos Verdes Peninsula on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Apr 23, 2014

Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which spans skyward a dizzying 2,716.5 feet, is the world’s tallest building. Just standing on the observation deck is enough to take one’s breath away.

So imagine the exhilaration shared by Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet this week when they leaped from the tower's pinnacle, wearing wingsuits that enabled them to soar and parachutes that ultimately allowed them to float to earth and reflect on their world-record feat.

“We don’t like to scare ourselves. That’s not our goal,” Fugen maintains in the accompanying video, which was uploaded Tuesday by Skydive Dubai. “People think you base jump because you’re crazy, you like to get scared. We like to fly, you know, we like to have fun. So if you’re scared up there, there is no fun.”

The footage was captured from various angles, from cameras worn by Fugen and Reffet and from another jumper, and from a camera-mounted helicopter. The result, enhanced by the bright-yellow wingsuits and orange smoke, is a spectacular production that resembles a scene from an action movie.

It looks exciting and fun, but it also looks scary. Definitely a stunt for experts only, and one that required lots of support, including from the royal family.

Apr 18, 2014

Aleksander Doba, a Polish adventurer who set out six months ago to cross the Atlantic in a 21-foot kayak, pulled into Port Canaveral in Florida on Thursday night, looking like a castaway.

His skin was bronzed and weathered, his beard long and tangled, but the 67-year-old’s mood was upbeat as he raised his arms in triumph after a remarkable crossing that spanned 5,400 miles.

However, Doba did not step out of his vessel; instead he vowed to continue another 60 miles south to New Smyrna Beach, his planned destination, a journey that should end Saturday or Sunday.

In December, he refused a rescue attempt by members of a commercial tanker after issuing an SOS signal, about midway across the Atlantic. He told the crew that his satellite navigation equipment wasn’t working properly, but that he was proceeding anyway.

On February 13, he lost a rudder in the Bermuda Triangle, 800 miles from the Florida coast. He also experienced equipment issues and was unable to send messages for 47 days. But he reached Bermuda, where he spent a month while repairs were made.

(His paddle from Portugal to Bermuda is believed to be the longest open-water kayak crossing in history. Previously, Doba had paddled 3,345 miles from Senegal, Africa, to Brazil, over a span of 99 days, completing that expedition in 2011.)

On March 23, Doba hitched a ride with a tall sailing ship back to a strategic location that he had strayed hundreds of miles from while fending off storms. That put him back in position to make Florida.

According to Canoe & Kayak magazine, even the last few days of fighting the Gulf Stream proved extremely challenging.

“For five months we worried about crossing the Gulf Stream,” Piotr Chmielinski, who has helped manage Doba’s expedition and served as translator, told Canoe & Kayak. “If he got northerly winds, the current and winds fight each other and you get choppy, breaking son-of-a-gun waves.

“And what happened [Thursday]? He got northerly winds. The conditions kept the fishing boats on shore. It was so rough, no one could believe a kayak could come from out there.”

Canoe & Kayak reports that Doba started paddling at the age of 40 and, according to his son, lived by this motto: “It’s better to live one day as a lion than a thousand years as a lamb.”

At Port Canaveral, he was greeted by members of the Polish-American Association of Sarasota, who chanted, “Go Olek!”

“This is a big deal,” Arthur Okula, president of the association, told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “He needs to see that somebody is waiting for him.”

At New Smyrna, friends and another welcoming party will greet the retired engineer-turned-adventurer, who no doubt will be walking on wobbly legs.

Apr 16, 2014

Imagine pulling into a gas station and seeing a pickup truck pull in toting an enormous mako shark that is nearly spilling out of the vehicle's bed.

The accompanying image was posted Wednesday on the Pensacola News Journal Facebook page, saying it was supplied by a reader who said it had been caught off Navarre Beach in the morning. In the first six hours the photo had been shared more than 1,200 times.

Details were not provided but a reader named Jeremy Monnot commented that his cousin caught the mako, and added: “I have been asked not to provide the details however I can release some information. It was caught SE of Panama City Beach. It is a mako and will be used for food.

“Most of my family will be eating on this thing for months. Makos are legal game fish in Florida. There is nothing wrong with taking one of these as long as the creature is not wasted, and nothing goes to waste.”

Some shark fishermen choose to remain anonymous because so many people are against killing sharks these days.

This catch comes just days after a giant bull shark was caught just beyond the Miami Beach skyline.

Western Australia has endured months of criticism over a shark-culling program intended to keep swimmers and surfers safe, but now a monstrous great white shark that was tagged and released is making headlines… and causing jaws to drop.

The massively plump predator, estimated to measure at least 16 feet and weigh 1.6 tons, was captured on March 30 off King George Sound, and fitted with an internal tag in a process biologists described as groundbreaking.

But the photo atop this post, revealing the incredible girth of the shark as it was turned over for the tagging process, was not released until Tuesday. The image has sparked an online media fury.

The female shark’s nickname: Joan of Shark.

Joan is among many sharks that are tagged as part of an alternative to culling, to let biologists know their whereabouts, in part so swimmers and surfers can be warned.

Since Joan was tagged she has been detected near Albany beaches several times, including nine times last Saturday. (Albany is in the extreme south of Western Australia, and is not in the region in which culling is occurring.)

Joan is among several sharks that were drawn last weekend to a whale carcass that ultimately washed onto the beach. Middleton Beach had to be closed during one of Joan’s close approaches.

Biologists, meanwhile, remain optimistic that they will be able to keep tabs on the great white’s movements for up to 10 years, thanks to a tag that was surgically inserted during an ambitious and precarious day of work.

Mark Kleeman, project manager for the Shark Monitoring Network, said that tagging a shark of this size, in this manner, is almost unprecedented.

“This is very exciting and potentially a world first,” Kleeman told the Newcastle Herald. “Lots of juveniles get tagged, but to have a fully mature female and get 10 years of data out of it is a big thing for us.”

(Internal tags are more secure and longer-lasting.)

Joan, which had been externally tagged a week earlier after it had approached a Fisheries department vessel near Limestone Head, was hooked on March 30 in shallow water near Mistaken Island.

To insert the internal tag, biologists used ropes to stabilize the predator, and to roll her upside down in the water. Once the shark was turned over, she entered a state of “tonic immobility,” which essentially is playing dead.

That process took more than two hours. Inserting the tag, via small incision, required only five minutes.

Joan becomes one of about 340 tagged sharks of various species in Australian waters, and by far the largest. Five great whites have been tagged off Albany during the past year.

“We are excited by the potential of what this shark can give us,” Kleeman said. “We will be able to see where it is traveling and how often. Over time we will be able to build the data and then we can see if there are any pasterns forming, which is a great start for understanding more about them.”

Best of all, for swimmers and surfers, is that Joan will announce her presence each time she approaches a popular beach.

As for the shark-culling program, Fisheries Minister Ken Baston told ABC News that it will not be expanded to the Albany area despite the presence of Joan.

The renowned guide, who is often criticized for killing large sharks, said via text message that the shark was hooked 100 yards from shore and it’s stomach contained “1/2 a tarpon, 3 jack crevalles, 1 hawksbill turtle, and 1 permit.” Mark the Shark did not provide the angler's name.

Among the hashtags used in the Instagram post: #catchingmonsters, #dangeroussharks, #maneater, #sharkhunter, and #nothinggetsaway.

Apr 10, 2014

Fishermen often become overly excited during chaotic moments, and their actions are not always appropriate for the situation.

The accompanying clip shows Captain Bo Johnson of Team Tenacity guide service trying to stop a giant hammerhead shark–by leaning out and grabbing its dorsal fin with both hands–from stealing a large tarpon that has been reeled to the boat off Boca Grande Pass, Florida.

Johnson, a fishing show TV personality and a seasoned angler, has handled lots of hooked sharks but presumably never a free-swimming great hammerhead. But this crazy scene definitely warrants a do-not-try-this-at-home label.

Writes Gayne C. Young of Outdoor Life: “There’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity. Truth be told, I can see plenty of both in this clip.

The shark is obviously dialed in on the tarpon, though, and seems to be paying Johnson and crew no mind. The game fish is spared, according to the video description, and later released.

However, at the end of the clip there’s a screen grab from a previous video, showing half a tarpon. So the large hammerheads off Florida, which feed seasonally on migrating tarpon, appear to be getting their share of hooked fish.

Apr 08, 2014

A humpback whale mother and calf surprised surfers and onlookers Saturday when they caught a large set wave at the Banzai Pipeline and rode the swell long enough for J.T. Gray to capture the moment.

While it’s common for dolphins to ride waves, this is extremely rare behavior for a large whale species.

“The whales were 75 to 100 yards east of Pipeline and playing for a while, then swam to about 10 yards outside of the lineup,” said Gray, or North Shore Surf Photos. “A set came in and the bodyboarder, Guilhermetamega Tamega, caught the first wave, and the humpbacks caught the second.”

Gray added: “Whales frequent Hawaii in the winter months, but never that close to shore.”

The rare image was posted on Ocean Defender–Hawaii's Facebook page on Monday. As of Tuesday morning it had been shared more than 4,000 times. Gray gave permission for its use for this story.

He said the whales were a mother and calf, and it’s possible that they were just playing, but it’s also possible that the mother was keeping tabs on her stray calf.

Said Ocean Defender’s Oriana Kalama: “Yes, it’s the first time anyone has seen a humpback surf or get that close to the waves, but they do get really close to shores.

“Humpbacks sing, breach and if you ask me they dance too. If you ever have the chance to see them underwater, you would see how much they seem to enjoy to move their pectoral fins and in a way flirt with each other when in groups.

“So why wouldn't they surf too? After all they are Hawaiians by birth.”